From ISIN to LEI: The Role of Standards in the Global Financial Markets

From ISIN to LEI: The Role of Standards in the Global Financial Markets

27 Aug 2025 5 minutes

Every trade conducted on the global financial markets is based on one precise and reliable foundation: standardized financial identifiers. In this blog article, you’ll discover how these identifiers improve efficiency, transparency, and security.

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Imagine you’re at the airport. The departure board shows a never-ending cascade of flight numbers, destinations, and departure times. Without unambiguous flight numbers, gate assignments, and booking codes the place would be in pure chaos. Nobody would know which plane was flying where or which gate to head for. Things would be similar on the financial markets without standardized financial identifiers.

What Are Financial Identifiers?

Financial markets are complex systems with millions of instruments, participants, and transactions. Financial identifiers are standardized codes that uniquely identify financial instruments, market participants, and trading centers. Their main purpose is to provide clarity and security in the communication between market participants.

Standardization is the prerequisite for international cooperation and global trade. An ISIN can be used in Europe exactly as it’s used in Asia. Its format and meaning applies worldwide.

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Get to Know the Key Financial Identifiers

1.     ISIN - International Securities Identification Number

The ISIN is a globally unique ID number for the clear identification of financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, funds, or derivatives. Without the ISIN, global trade on the financial markets would be unthinkable.

2.     CFI - Classification of Financial Instruments

The CFI code provides information about the characteristics of a financial instrument, for example if it relates to a stock, bond, or derivative. It is an essential data set for market analyses and regulatory classification.

3.     FISN - Financial Instrument Short Name

The FISN is a standardized abbreviated name for a financial instrument such as a stock, bond, or a derivative. The FISN helps to identify financial instruments clearly and uniquely. These are not to be confused with ticker symbols, which are specific to stock markets. A FISN is identical no matter where you are in the world. It consists of the name of the issuer (e.g. NOVARTIS), the type (e.g. registered; REG), the type of instrument (e.g. shares; SH), the nominal currency (e.g. CHF) and the nominal value (e.g. 0.49): NOVARTIS/REGSH CHF0.49

4.     MIC - Market Identifier Code

This international code establishes a universal procedure for identifying stock exchanges, trading platforms, regulated or unregulated markets, and trade notifications. It ensures the proper settlement and reporting of trading transactions.

5.     BIC - Bank Identifier Code

The BIC, also known as the SWIFT code, identifies financial institutions in the case of payment transactions and international transactions.

6.     Currency Codes in Accordance with ISO 4217

The ISO 4217 standard provides transparency and minimizes mistakes involving currency designations. It governs the uniform international representation of currency codes. These generally consist of three characters. The norm covers all currencies, from the Afghan afghani (AFN) to the Zambian kwacha (ZMK).

7.     LEI - Legal Entity Identifier

The LEI identifies legal entities involved in financial transactions. Following the financial crises in 2008, regulators admitted that they weren’t able to identify the parties to transactions in all markets, for all products, and in all regions. The Financial Stability Board, together with the finance ministers and central bank governors represented in the G20, therefore advocated for the development of a universal Legal Entity Identifier (LEI). The LEI allows authorities to evaluate systemic and emerging risks, identify trends, and take corrective measures.

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Who Issues These Financial Identifiers?

The most important financial identifiers are based on international standards of ISO. The responsible issuing organizations such as the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF), for LEI, and the Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA), for ISIN and CFI, provide these identifiers to the market. They manage the identifiers and ensure that they reflect the latest happenings in the market.

As the official National Numbering Agency for Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Belgium, SIX plays a key role in the allocation and maintenance of financial identifiers. SIX thus plays a pivotal role in defining and implementing international standards.

What Problems Do Financial Identifiers Solve?

Financial identifiers make it easier to comply with complicated regulatory requirements such as MiFID II, EMIR, and SFTR. Without the financial identifiers, accurate reporting and market supervision would hardly be possible. Clear identification of counterparties and instruments facilitates risk analysis and limitation, particularly in volatile market conditions.

Automated trading processes, settlement, and reporting also rely on standardized financial identifiers. They minimize manual errors and reduce costs. Moreover, they facilitate the harmonization of information from a variety of systems, data sources, and countries.

Who Uses Financial Identifiers?

  • Financial Institutions
     Banks, brokers, and asset managers need them for trading, compliance, settlement, and client reports.
  • Regulatory Authorities
     Regulators worldwide use standardized identifiers for market monitoring and risk assessment – for example when tracking systemic risks.
  • Companies
    Companies use LEIs when conducting international business, producing reporting, and managing supply chains.
  • Investors
    Institutional investors need accurate information regarding instruments and issuers in order to manage portfolios and conduct risk analyses.
  • Data Providers
     Data providers such as SIX deliver comprehensive data feeds based on these standards, thereby facilitating a reliable data infrastructure.

What Are the Challenges in the Financial Identifiers Ecosystem?

Having multiple financial identifiers for similar purposes increases complexity. Harmonization is needed. Regular updating is key. In order to avoid mistakes, the identifiers are reviewed every four to five years. The introduction of new identifiers, such as the LEI, often requires profound changes in existing IT infrastructures. 

What Does the Future of Financial Identifiers Look Like?

A Digital Token Identifier (DTI) is a standardized code for clear identification of digital assets, particularly cryptoassets and tokens, similar to the ISIN for traditional financial instruments. Since April 2021, the ANNA has been working with the Digital Token Identifier Foundation (DTIF). SIX offered the first DTI at the beginning of 2023.

The introduction of the Unique Product Identifier (UPI) in 2024 is part of global reforms aimed at improving the transparency and stability of the derivatives markets, which were initiated by the G20 following the 2008 financial crisis. The UPI was developed in order to provide clear and standardized information about over-the-counter derivatives products, regardless of where or by whom they are traded. It identifies a derivative based on its key economic characteristics, such as product type, underlying, and term. The UPI therefore plays a central role in the automation and monitoring of derivatives transactions in the international financial system.

The New CFI Look Up Service from SIX

SIX is actively involved with ISO and in bodies such as ANNA, GLEIF and the Swiss Association for Standardization. In addition, SIX helps shape regulatory developments and makes financial identifiers fit for the future by investing in modern data solutions. The new CFI Look Up Service significantly simplifies the derivation and decoding of CFI codes for market participants.

Learn More About the CFI Look Up Service

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